This Weekend’s (Not-So) Outdoor Festivals: Great Texas BBQ Postponed + KTRU Indoor Show + Willow Waterhole Music Fest

A bit late, I know, but there’re a bunch of outdoor festival-type things that were supposed to be happening this weekend, Sat. & Sun., April 21st & 22nd, that haven’t quite worked out like the organizers had originally planned.

First off — and by far the largest of these — is the Great Texas BBQ Festival, a two-day festival that was meant to take place at Sam Houston Park this weekend and which was set to include not only a slew of awesome BBQ offerings but also a slew of awesome music from folks including Lucero, Dawes, Futurebirds, Wanda Jackson, Lee Fields & The Expressions, Morris Day & The Time(!), and H-town’s own Ancient Cat Society, Craig Kinsey, & The Suffers, plus other good folks that are slipping my mind right at the moment.

I was actually hoping to head by the festival myself this weekend, dragging my BBQ- (and music-) loving 8-year-old in tow, and was disappointed to learn a day or two ago that the festival organizers — who are the people behind the ever-awesome Day for Night festival in December — made the decision to postpone the BBQ Fest due to the threat of possible bad weather. Given that this same crew used to run FPSF and had to deal with multiple years of rainouts and lightning and mud, I get it, believe me.

Anyway, the rescheduled festival will now take place on Sat. & Sun., May 19th & 20th, and instead of being outside at the park, it’ll be partly indoors over at the same Post HTX complex that’s home to DFN every winter. All tickets already purchased will be honored for the new dates, naturally…

On a smaller scale, today’s also the 27th Annual (holy shit!) KTRU Outdoor Show, which hasn’t been cancelled or rescheduled but has been moved — it’s now the KTRU Indoor Show, and will be taking place today from 3-11PM at the Rice Memorial Center.

They’ve got some excellent folks playing, like great local songstress Kay Weathers & cool fellow locals Pearl Crush, plus out-of-towner Homeshake (whose Sunday show at Rockefellers is already sold out, btw, so this might be your only chance to see ’em any time soon). And as always, it’s free, which is the best price.

Again on the smaller side, and closer to home for yours truly, this weekend is also the low-key-yet-fun Willow Waterhole Music Fest at Willow Waterhole down on the southwest side of the city, which includes a big pile of largely blues and jazz musicians & bands, with some reggae, zydeco, and rock bands thrown in, and kids from several local schools performing, as well. It’s a lot of fun, and we try to bring the kids over there every year just to hang out, wander the craft booths, & listen to the music. This year they’ve got some names I recognize, like ’90s throwback reggae band The Presidents (who I haven’t seen/heard in at least 20 years), blues crew Luther and the Healers, and funky pop-jazz band TKOh!, which is very cool to see.

I’m fairly sure it’s also free, and I have yet to hear anything about it being cancelled or postponed, so it should be going on right now. Get on out & brave the potential rain, alright?